8 years yesterday!

Sonny and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary yesterday! Wow! But it has truly been a wonderful 8 years. We met at BYU in January of 2000. We were both living in the same apartment complex and met through a friend. We had a few classes together and got to know each other until the semester ended in April. We had started dating in March and Sonny decided to take a job in Palmdale as a Pest Control salesman so that we could spend the summer together in California. We dated the whole summer and into the next school year and then got engaged November 2000. We got married in the Los Angeles Temple, my favorite temple (why? hello, I'm a Cali girl!) and, of course, it was an incredible day.

Since we have been married, we have had lots of amazing experiences. Here are some of the places we have lived: Provo, Utah (where, for the last 6 months we lived there, we house sat for a family who had 1 dog, 3 cats, 2 ducks, and a chicken... absolutely loved it, except for the ducks...those suckers are so mean!) , La Verne, CA, here, and soon to be Tacoma, WA.

Here are some of the places we have traveled to together: New York City (Sonny interviewed at Columbia University), San Francisco, Washington D.C. (for an externship at Walter Reed), Washington State (also for an externship at Fort Lewis), and hopefully in 4 years, Germany (I knew I took German in high school for a reason!) And that doesn't count all the layovers during all of our flights.

Anyways, love you hun and I look forward to our fantastic future together!

I wish I was an architect...

In college, I majored in Humanities but my most favorite classes were the ones where I learned about architecture. I remember being totally and utterly amazed by so many of the structures that had been built around the world. Whenever we go out anywhere, I am always on the lookout for cool architecture. And when I see something I like, I snap a picture. Last weekend, we planned a trip to Balboa Park, San Diego to check out an event called Woofstock (I know, sounds totally lame...). Besides the fact that I LOVE dogs, I thought Tay would also have a blast seeing the tons of dogs there. Well, it turned out to be not what we expected. It was pretty much designed for families that had dogs. So we decided just to walk around the fabulous park and see the sights. Here are some of my favorites:

Easter

We spent Easter this year at my sister Sarah's house in Laguna Niguel. My parents and little sister, Elizabeth (home from BYU Idaho for spring break) were also there. My sister's husband, Rocky, also invited some of his family. We all had a terrific time and enjoyed a huge dinner together. Taylor's favorite part was playing with Sarah's miniature dachsund, Daisy. He was busy the whole time just chasing her around the house. Rocky's brother has 2 children and Taylor really had fun with them. I've noticed that Taylor really loves hanging out with older kids... it's funny to watch. He's never shy around them and actually likes to show off a little. Taylor has such a funny sense of humor. I love it! Anyways, I put together a bunch of eggs with treats in them and we had an easter egg hunt in her backyard. While putting them together, I was trying to think up something funny to put in some of the eggs. Since I was a kid, I have always loved pickles and I remembered how growing up, my Nana (what I called my dad's mother) used to put a piece of a pickle in one of the eggs. It was always a tasty little easter snack! Overall, I think I liked looking for the eggs more than Taylor. Like any other little kid, as soon as he realized there was candy in the eggs, he wasn't interested in the hunt anymore. Like I've mentioned before, Taylor lives for chocolate. We also had a fun time visiting with Bosh (oops, I mean Elizabeth!)

I forgot to mention that Taylor also got an awesome Easter basket, and yes, Sonny got one too. He insisted. A couple days before Easter, we dyed our eggs. And the next day, dyed them over again (but this time in juice and water... pretend dye!). Taylor was fascinated with dying eggs for a few days there until every last egg had broke. Altogether, it was a fun holiday with family!

Attn: fellow Charles Dicken's fans

I have been a major follower of Masterpiece Theatre since I was a teenager. My mom got me hooked to it. For those of you who are not aware of what Masterpiece Theatre is (it's actually called "Masterpiece Classic" now), it's a program that they have on PBS (for us, channel 79). It's on Sunday nights and they make wonderful and beautiful movies. They are called "made for tv" movies, so they aren't in theaters or anything. Anyways, starting this Sunday night, and continuing every consecutive Sunday for like a month, they are showing one of Charles Dicken's works "Little Dorrit." I have never actually read it or seen it but have read others by him. Here is a little summary of what it will be about:

Amy Dorrit's (Claire Foy) gentle spirit has never been dampened by the confining walls of the Marshalsea Prison she's lived in her whole life. Despite the dark shadow of debtor's prison, Amy lovingly cares for her father William Dorrit (Tom Courtenay), the longest serving inmate. A possibly redemptive light unexpectedly shines in the form of Arthur Clennam (Matthew Macfadyen), who has been left with the intriguing threads of a mystery after his father's death — threads that will intertwine his family and fate with the Dorrits. Clennam's exhaustive search for answers involves murder, fortunes gained and lost, the upper echelons and lowest dregs of society, and most surprising of all, a tender romance. Adapted by Andrew Davies (Bleak House, Pride and Prejudice), Little Dorrit, based on the book by Charles Dickens, is a sprawling story as timely as it is moving.

If you love Pride and Prejudice (with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth) and other English classics, you will probably like this. If your not familiar with Charles Dickens, his stories mostly take place on the dirty street of London but are always full of interesting characters. So it will be a bit more dark and grimy than Austen so be prepared. Anyways, hope you enjoy and if you are interested in learning more, just go to www.pbs.org!

A Big Day for Tay !!!

Well, at exactly 6 pm tonight, Taylor turned 2 ! We had a great day together at D-land (I know, why go on his b-day, he still gets in free?). I figured I'd check out the crowd and see what other little kids had their birthday today...Ok, pretty much the whole world... it was beyond crazy. It's funny, I always plan ahead and attempt to get there right when it opens and every single time, ya, it never happens. So I got there at 11 and left around 2. It was a very quick trip but long enough to be ready to go home. Of course we went on Pirates (Yeah!) but spent most of the time at California Adventure where the crowd was much smaller. Tay mostly swam, or sprinkled, in the water area and for the first time, enjoyed getting sprayed in the face! It was fun to watch.
The trip home was quite entertaining as well. While hitting major traffic, of course, (ya, I always plan and attempt to leave before the dreaded 91 deadlock but you know... Ah, I hate the 91!), for the first time ever, I saw a car switch drivers! while driving! and then cross over like 4 lanes in 2 seconds. Insane.When we got home, the rest of the night was spent spoiling the heck out of him. We had some yummy Carl's Jr (Tay likes the chicken stars) and then had some Cold Stone. So Tay had a total of 2 ice creams and one cupcake today, all chocolate (or as he says, "dat dat.") But his favorite part of the day was getting his Jack Sparrow action figure! I was questioning whether or not he would be into it but he definitely was. He loves putting Jack's hat on and off and placing his sword in and out of his hand! He's only had Jack for not even 24 hours and has already lost his "effects" (what Pirates call weapons and such) a couple times in our front yard grass! Anyways, we had a blast celebrating his special day with him.
We also had a little party, Pirate themed of course, for him last Sunday with my family. He got lots of great gifts and had lots of fun with everybody. Taylor is also really into shoes right now, any kind of shoe, my shoes, girl's tap shoes (from the white house), flip flops, whatever. So he got a lot of shoes for his birthday. He loves to play in water so my mom gave him a pair of red Mickey Mouse boots, which will be perfect for Washington too. We attempted to make the Cafe Rio burrito thingys and they turned out pretty dang good. Instead of a cake, I decided to go for cupcakes. So we had a great party and I had a blast planning it.

We love Taylor and look forward to watching him grow up! He is such a cute and funny little boy who lives for swords, boots, and chocolate.

Close Encounters of the Disney kind...

He loved them, especially Tigger! They were buds.

My pictures of you...

Here are a couple of new pictures to show what we have been up to lately:

Making Valentine's Day cookies with Grandma and Grandpa

Tay's curly hair

Tay's new obsession is building a "Pirate Cave" in the living room

Riding the turtle with Grandma and Grandpa at the San Diego Zoo

"Homey-G"... Taylor loves to wear my hats, shoes, and sunglasses all day long around the house!

And he loves umbrella's and to help hold them- that's perfect because we'll be using them a lot in Tacoma!

Watch out for Captain Taylor Porter!

Us with some cute bears...

Tay modeling his glasses while in line for Toy Story

On the bridge at D-land

Taylor all of a sudden has started to say a bunch of words. One of them is "wa-wa" (water) so now it's water 24/7. Everywhere we go, we look for water, and of course, pirate swords...